Day 12 - The Last Day of Christmas Tag

Tim's tag was all about tricks with tissue paper. By the time I got around to working on this it was December 30 and I have to admit my thoughts had wandered a bit towards Valentines Day.

I had a couple of happy accents in the making of the tag. I used Glossy Accents to adhere the tissue paper to the tag which had already been stamped and colored with Fired Brick stain, with a cover coat of Picket Fence stain. I didn't bother to spread the adhesive so I ended up with some of the tissue being right down on the surface of the tag, and some was raised a bit as I scrunched the tissue paper up. So I got kind of a cool splothcy effect in the background. (So many technical terms in use tonight).

I colored some sparkly tule with more Fired Brick stain and gathered it for the skirt. The flower at her waist is Aged Mahogany, with a faux diamond in the center which of course you can't see at all. The only letters I had were 1/2" and lower case, so I turned to the Cricut and used 1" letters. I like the effect a lot.

I love the adventure of the tags this year and want to continue to use the techniques throughout the new year. I am so thankful for Tim Holtz and all the folks he works with and all the folks in blogland who share their work. It's an amazing adventure we're on!

Day 10 - Faux Mercury Ornaments

Wowza. What a great technique.

I've used facets with paper behind them effectively before, but this technique really takes things up a notch. Quick run down: Select your picture and cut it out slightly larger than the facet. Take CLEAR packing tape, and adhesive side down, lay the tape on the picture. Put this into a bowl of warm water and with a gentle circular motion of your finger, work the back of the paper off the image. It will separate much easier than you think. Blot off the excess water from the image. Peel back the paper from the foil tape and adhere the image on top of the foil - burnish with your fingers. Use just a tiny amount of Glossy Accents spread across the flat side of the facet and adhere the facet to the picture backed in foil. It's just one more little way Tim helps make things fabulous.

I wish the picture showed this off a bit better. The luminescence of this really needs to be seen in person.

I used some blue Graphic 45 paper from a couple of years ago, along with Perfect Pearls and the music and holly stamps for a different approach to the background.

And I didn't have the letters to spell Believe, so I went with Twinkle covered in gold paint, sanded and then covered in Picket Fence Stickles. I rather like the way it turned out.

Wish we would see a few more stars here - it's been snowing for the past several days. We certainly did have a White Christmas tho!

Day 9 - Double Embossing

Or how yellow makes Festive Berries look orange...

Doesn't matter though, I still like the way this one turned out. Of course I didn't have the Hero Arts background stamp Tim used, but I did have a beautiful Anna Griffin tile stamp I used for the background. I used Evergreen Bough as the first ink color, which I then embossed with clear powder. Very shiny. Next I inked the entire card with Festive Berries and embossed it again. I might have over baked it, because I got some little white bumps, but I didn't let that stop me. Walnut stain and Tim's distressing tool finished the edges. Note: if you don't have the distressing tool, consider the investment...it does a fabulous job.

I got the idea of the yellow light in the street lamp from Annette Green - thank you very much Annette. (Check out her blog - she made Christmas ornaments out of the tags - WOW). It's just some yellow alcohol inks on glossy paper. I think I used a combination of Lemonade and, and, well, some other shade of yellow.....

Each year in Palmer, Alaska we celebrate Colony Christmas, a great old fashioned festival in mid-December. A couple of years ago we hatched the idea of using evergreen boughs, white lights and big red ribbons on all the street lights which look very similar to this die cut. It looked great. And our lamp posts are shiny, so I made mine shiny too with Glossy Accents.

And to finish it off I found some small gold embellishments that were just perfect. Hmmmm. I love the Fun Room.

Lo these Many Days Later - Day 6

The phrase "hot mess" comes to mind with this tag. While I was painting I discovered two things: one I need a smaller brush and two, I am not a patient woman. One I already knew, the other went on the perpetual "list". This was my second attempt at this technique; part of the issue is I used a sanding block instead of a burnisher, on top of  the other things....

It looks much better with the holly leaves on the top - believe me. I was impressed with the technique tho - the difference after you apply the ink and then the embossing powder is remarkable.

I am going to try a smaller brush too ... and more paint colors....more colors might help. 

Day 5 - Christmas in Paris

Ooo la la. Like this technique a lot! I didn't have the Christmas script, and truth be told I hadn't been really successful with the stamp I did have...but I had only tried stamp to stamp. But using the reverse stamp on the beautifully colored clear tag produced a gorgeous background.

I used Red Pepper, Watermelon, and Current alcohol inks - three different applications. And the process worked just like Tim (link)said it would. I think I was actually giggling when the ink removed the color and just left the french sentences.

I was sitting in a meeting earlier this week when I came up with the idea of the Eiffel Tower and after auditioning red, white, and green I settled on the black background The greenery is from the pine cone die - in about as many different colors of green as you can imagine. Got that from my quilting days: if you use enough they all blend together.

I am a real fan of Tammy Tutterow (link) and so one day ordered the little hero arts alphabet she uses so effectively. I have to say I love it. It's just the right size and I can use it to say any ole' thing that pops into my head. The simple red "pearl" (yeah, right, a string of them for $2.90 at Michael's) was all the embellishment it needed. Enjoyed this tag a lot....I love Paris. 

Tag 8 - Steampunk Christmas

oooo....love this tag. Steampunk is so much fun -- frankly I like anything where more is better -- so I just gathered things on my table and went to town.

I had just gotten the stripped background stamp from Studio 490 and so used that and think it was just right....I like that it looks a little frayed around the edges. I embossed it in white and then used Iced Spruce, Evergreen Bough, and Festive Berries to ink the tag. I thought it still need something so I took out the numbers stamp from one of Tim's background stamp collections, and used Frayed Burlap stain on it. The effect was dribs and drabs of brown onto of the stripes and it help make it look a bit more vintage.  Kind of hard to see in the photo tho....

Next I used the Graphic 45 stamp for the lady's head and embossed in on grunge board in black. I inked her with Frayed Burlap and I added watch parts to her hair for texture and interest. The large gold gear was sitting on my table from where I tried the technique that Tim talked about on his blog a while ago, and I had already painted the smaller gears black, so I just added some gold ink and scuffed them up. I used a clock face, face down on the large gear, I liked the look of the solid sphere under the  flower. I added more bits and pieces, remembered to spread out the color red and finally said....enough is enough.

Tags 4 and 7 - Tim Holtz's 12 Days of Christmas

That Tim guy.....he's pretty dang clever.

I continue to be amazed by all the new ways of doing things, combining things, and techniques, etc. I had a grand time with these tags. I buy the crackle paint in the large economy size, but I hadn't tried stains with it yet. Love the effect. Although when I tried it at first I forgot to dry it - important step. I can imagine a lot of different ways to use this.

I tried one snowman with grunge paper (right) and one with grunge board (left) and in the end, I think either is fine. Last night I ran out of Glossy Accents, so I used Dimond Glaze, and although it worked, it has just a bit different finish  - almost less dense (right side is Glossy Accents).

I didn't crackle the die-cut snowflake, so I just put on some more bling with crystal snowflakes in the corner. I mean once your decked out in pearls and feathers, what's a few more sparkly things?

I immediately fell in love with Tag 7. Any time I can use alcohol inks is a good day and I really enjoyed playing with the glassine paper that had been sitting around in the fun room for weeks. I know it didn't work for pine-cones ... too thin.  But it works great for ivy.

I love the stamp....and have coveted it for weeks. What a wonderful excuse to purchase it and go see Linda at Stamp Cache. I'm taking a hybrid approach to the tags this year. I don't mind improvising, but if I really like the tag and I have everything, why not make it and try all the new techniques, tips and tricks? And if I can shop local in the bargain, even better...

I didn't have the die so I used the Cricut. It took a little extra care and some free form cutting on my part, but it turned out fine I think.

And before I left the fun room, I started on Tag 6 - the old time metal looking one. I painted the foil, sanded it, inked, and embossed it and am simply blown away. It looked like a hot mess for sure, but the ink and embossing changed everything. Hopefully I'll get to the tag this weekend.

Tag, What Tag?

Oh boy - this is amazing. I am loving the suspense of waiting for the tags each day and then there is so much information! Tim Rocks. No doubt about it.

But it's been a really busy week at work and I only have a bit of time to work on them; hopefully I have enough done and drying to have at least two more done tomorrow.

The big decision now: Tim will post the new one in a half hour (Alaska time is one hour earlier than Arizona, so I get them every night at 11:01 pm). Should I wait up?

One night I woke up in the middle of the night and thought, oh, what the heck, took a look and got so excited I was up for another 3:00 hours. Not so good for the energy level the next day. But, as my co-worker said this morning it only happens once a year.

Okay - I'm going to bed and getting up early tomorrow....unless of course I still happen to be awake at 11:01

Day 2 - Tim Holtz's 12 Days of Christmas

I was really excited to see the tags that Tim made with the Christmas Kraft Resist....since I had quite a few tags ready to decorate.  One day I was upstairs in the "fun room" and pulled the 12 x 12 sheet out with all the words on it. I started with Picket Fence Stain as the first coat and then used all the pretty colors of the distress stains to color each word. It's all about color for me.....and lately texture, but that's another story.

So if one is good, four are certainly better....and here's what I ended up with:

I like the Snow Man the best. I like the other ones too, but he's so simple and clean....

I don't always pay attention to what side is which at the die cut machine, hence why my dear is looking right....I really enjoyed working on the canvas. It's great with the stains.

And just to round out the group, here's a picture of the tree. The perfect pearls snowflakes make the pictures a bit tough to take, but add a glimmer to the card that is just one more layer of interest.

I learned a lot with this tag and can't wait until I have more time up in the Fun Room.

Day 1 - Tim Holt'z 12 Days of Christmas

For the past five years, Tim Holtz  (link) has created a tag the first twelve days of December. I guess there are many reasons he does this, but the ones I focus on are the new techniques he incorporates AND the call to be creative during what can be, well let's just say a rather hectic time of year.

So here's my first days tag:

I didn't have all the supplies, like the die-cut for the snazzy Noel he had, or all the right foliage under the pine cones, so I used an old grunge board ornament and the leaves from the pine cone dies....I was SO excited that my pine cones even resemble pine cones -- thanks to a the video on Tim's site which suggests you start from the outside - BIG difference.

And because "if one's good, ten are even better" sentiment passed along by my Dad, I actually made two of these types of tags. Yippee Skippy.

Here's a close up of the pine cones I'm so proud of.....

So maybe tomorrow I can actually figure out how to list the great blogs I follow, and post my cards on some other websites which is why I'm doing this in the first place - although truth be told, I have been thinking about.

Tim Drove Me To It

Because I am having such a great time looking at everyone else's renditions of Tim Holt'z fabulous 12 Tags of Christmas, I am starting a blog so I can add my tags to the party. Now just as soon as I learn how to do a few crucial things, say ah, add photos, I should be in business